The ChangingMinds Blog!

Who moved my table? Nobody, but I should have!

Last weekend I was helping out with 'Bee Friendly Monmouthshire' a local
voluntary group that is working to increase awareness and action in protecting
pollinators, including butterflies, moths, hoverflies and, of course bees.
There's around 260 varieties of wild bees in the UK and without them, farmers
would have to spend about ?1.8B in artificial pollination, yet the pressures of
survival means they are still planting monocultures that limit pollinator feed,
cutting undergrowth where pollinators live and using poisons that kill
pollinators as well as pests.

But enough of that. Much of my work with BfM is in persuasive wording, but
last weekend I was just manning a stall at a country house nearby which was
opening its gardens to the public as a part of the
National Gardens Scheme.

The situation was that there was a set of tables selling various things just
next to the house, snagging visitors as they came to see the gardens. Near me
was a range of plant stalls, selling flowers and vegetable seedlings at quite
reasonable prices. I put my table a little away from them at what I thought was
a nice angle, in a curve nearer the front door of the house. People like bees, I
though. They'll come to see me as they walk in and not be distracted by the
other stalls.

I was quite wrong. I was not the bee. They were. The real attraction for
people coming to visit the gardens was the cheap plants. Not some guy in the
corner going on about bees.

What I should have done was to move my table up next to the plant stalls, so
as the visitors moved down the line, they ended up with me. But somehow I didn't
do this. Why? Because of embarrassment and pride. If I'd moved my table, I would
have to admit that I was wrong. Even if no words were exchanged with the other
stallholders, they would know -- I would be admitting to having been wrong.

Darn that pride. It stops us doing the right thing so often. Next time, I'll
swallow it. Really.